Elf's Treats

Since this post is for my non-Finnish speaking friends, I'm just going to write straight in English, so you guys don't have to use the crappy translator. I'm dyslexic, so writing in English is really not my strength, forgive me that. For my friends and family at home, I'm alive and well and will be posting more soon!

So, this post is a recipe for Finnish Christmas Tarts (=joulutorttu). H's cousin E wanted to have Elf's Treats today, and we had no idea what those were, so since I was making these, we started calling these as Elf's Treats. Actually it kinda makes sense, since Santa is from Finland you know (you know?!). So these delicious treats are traditional Finnish dessert in the Christmas table, and my absolute favorite. These are super easy to make, and I'm not lying when I tell you, that last year I ate 8 in a row... 

You need:

- puff pastry (one pack gives you 18 tarts)

- plum marmalade

- one egg

- powdered sugar
- oven with 400F degrees

About the marmalade, you can also use jelly, but it doesn't stick together as marmalade when baked in the oven. And feel free using other flavors. At home we use apple too. Also, I wouldn't use raspberry or other sweet one, since the pastry is pretty sweet itself. But it's up to you, plum is the traditional one! Gives the tart perfect combination of sweet and bitter!

Let's do this step by step! 

1. Warm up the pastry in a microwave for 15 seconds, so that it becomes easy to cut and bendy. If it's too hard, it brakes and you end up having random pastry pieces you do nothing with. Then cut the pastry board in three equal squares (depends on pastry size, bigger ones gives you two large ones). 

2. Cut the corners. We are making stars! Of course you can do others shapes too, but this is the traditional one. I've used that word a lot today...



3. Bend in every second corner and pinch them to the pastry so that they won't pop up in the oven! 



4. Scoop in the marmalade! With a tea spoon, as much as you like, in the middle of the star. After this, grease the tarts with the egg. This isn't necessary, but gives the tart a nice shiny surface!



5. Make sure you've placed the tarts with a little space between each others, we don't want them to stick together in the oven! Put them in the oven for 12-14 minutes. My first ones were in for 14min and came out a little too dark, second round was in for 12,5min and came out perfect! Depends on the oven also. But they should have a nice gold color.




6. Let the tarts cool down a little after taking them out of the oven. Place them on a server and sprinkle the powdered sugar on them to give the nice Chirstmassy look! Serve the Elf's Treats warm with milk or glogg! 



I used H and E as my guinea pigs and I'm happy to tell you guys, that we are having more of these on Christmas! Please give these a shot, and tell me if you liked them! 

Merry Christmas everybody! 

- Sanni